A couple of weeks ago was the first XC race of the Island Cup. Since it was in Victoria, I decide to ride down. I rode to Mill Bay and too the ferry to Brentwood Bay, which is less than 10 km from The Dump. The problem with rides brken up by ferries is standing on the deck and freezing your toes off.
I arrived toward the end of the beginner race, and hung around all day. I took my camera and a flash, and set up by a little stream. Despite taking photos of every rider that passed, I only got a handfull of half-decent photos.
It started to rain as I rode down Mt. Work, and continued to do so until I got home. The ferry ride was colder, and the ride home was terrible.

Last weekend was the second race, this time in Port Alberni. I was going to get a ride up with Kurt and Kevin, but felt horrible the night before, sneezing and clogged sinuses, so didn't.
In the morning though, I felt quite a bit better, and thought it would help to go outside, so rode up Touzhalem along the trail from Providence farm. I come down this trail every time, but only twice have I ridden up it before , and that was over a year ago. I ride up that way to get out of the sun on a very hot day, but that was before I'd realized there was a bus that goes up through The Properties.
Mount Tzouhalem is my favourite place to ride, but I don't go regularly because I hate getting there. It's either a slow (on a mountain bike) 40 minute climb on the roads, or a 30 minute bus ride, preceded by 10 mins spent waiting for the bus (that only goes up there twice a day).
But realizing that I can comfortably climb the Providence Farm trail (I walked 2 bits, which I could probably ride when dry, or when more determined) makes Tzouhalem much more appealing. It takes me 10 mins on the road to get to the white church, and 45 from there to get the fireroad that goes from the main road to the cross. It takes me 15 to get down, and ten to get home from there. This means that mountain biking before work is possible! I could probably squeeze in Chicken Runs 2 & 3 and Three Musketeers while I'm up there.
It's rained almost every day since though.

Last Monday (my weekend is now Sunday and Monday), was reasonably clear but windy, with puffy clouds, so I thought I'd get going with my time-lapse project. The plan was to ride up Prevost to the very top, and shoot a time-lapse sequence of the valley with the clouds going by, but I got distracted by some hang gliders floating down from the top (and it started to rain, and my backpack isn't waterproof).
I followed them to their landing field and watched one land. I've often watched the paragliders, but never seen the hang gliders up close. The hang gliders are definitely faster in the air and much more maneuverable and "sporty", but they only seem to stay in the air for 20 mins at a time. The paragliders are often up there for 2 hours or more on good days. Also, the paragliders just fold up their wing and shove it in a bag, and thow it on the backseat of their car, whereas the hang gliders spend quite some time disassembling them, and then need a truck with special racks on the top to transport them.
I asked them if they were planning on doing another run, in hopes that I could get a timlapse of them winding their way down, but they said the wind was too rough.
I rode down the highway a bit and ended up setting up in a ditch at the side of the gold course. I took a few test shots, and when exposed for the sky, the bottom of the frame looked way over exposed, so I cut out the golf course and re-composed for just the sky, which was un-interesting. I should have trusted the histogram though, because the ground, while a little dark, was still usable.
I set up for one frame every five seconds, and sat and waited for about half an hour, and this is what I got (played back at 30 fps, at 15 was too slow):



Why is it all flickery? When I compare the frames, some are darker than others. Why? Everything on the camera was set to manual; aperature, shutter speed, iso, white balance, focus, etc.
What happened?

Some Photos (sort of)

I keep meaning to write a post. Whenever I go riding I ride along writing it in my head, but I never get around to it, or when I do I've forgotten what I was going to write.
(Do all my posts start like this?)

I haven't taken any photos in ages. I went out to take photos along the Trans Canada Trail a couple of weeks ago to take photos. I was out for about five hours, but only got around to processing these two:




I was still itching to try the time-lapse thing, but after breaking the first and having the second one stolen, I decided not to go with the cheap Canon point-and-shoot, asnd instead get an intervalometer for my D90. It arrived two days ago (this was written over a week before it got finished and posted, we've had nothing but flat cloud cover and rain since), and I've been messing around with it at home, and once I've got it down I'll go and find some more interesting scenes (top of Prevost, Tzouhalem, Mill Bay, etc. Any more ideas?).





There are so many thing to get right though. With stills, I take a picture, look at it on the LCD, and fix whatever's wrong. With a time lapse sequence though, everything has to be planned for several hours (or, if I can figure out an external power source, days). Predicting what exposure settings you'll need in two hours means predicting the weather. In the crocus one, the clouds shifted and the resulting video is over exposed. Although I remembered to set the white balance to manual, it isn't quite right. With a still, this would take two seconds to fix in Adobe Camera Raw, but quite a bit longer with thousands of stills to process, even with batch processing (does anyone have any recommendations for batch processing software? Lightroom?).
And then there's the problem of how often to take a shot, which is just guess work really.

I think I'm going to have to make a checklist.
exposure
white balance
manual focus
jpeg (not RAW)
jpeg size and quality
turn LCD off
lens flare?
will lens steam up?
shadows (tripod/camera in shot?)
rain?

Beban Cross

The first cross race of the season was on Sunday.
I was going to ride up to Nanaimo and just hang around and take photos and stuff, and Hilary wanted to come too.
On Saturday I was planning on going mountain biking - I haven't been in about a month - but really wasn't motivated (still angry about missing the Whistler/North Shore trip?), so I dug to the bottom of the tire pile for the cross tires that Dale had given me, and a dented palm and broken nail later I was at the bike shop for a bigger cassette - but they didn't have one. The bike felt completely different with the big tires on. It felt like a mountain bike. I rode around town a bit, and had a scary moment when making a sharp right. The tires have side-to-side ridges down the center, but lengthwise knobs on the edges. When I rolled onto the knobs, I felt the bike squirm as the knobs moved, which is a bit scary when you're not expecting it. I rode with Hilary home from the market, then we went on a ride along the trail that goes to Lake Cowichan. We got as far as Tansor, then came back. After I left Hilary's I did the same trail but a bit faster. The faster you ride, the less you feel the bumps, and you realize that a cross bike will take a lot of stick.
The plan for Sunday changed and Hilary and I were going to drive up in her car, then she decided not to go. Katie and Roland had very kindly offered me a ride, so I rode up with them.
I got to the race to find that I couldn't shift through my gears - which Kurt fixed (temporarily?) with some lube on the shifter cables - thanks Kurt!I entered the "Open Women's" rather than the beginner class. There was 11 of us on the start line, and we were on the track with the Masters. The course was a good one for the start of the season: very flat - which I was glad about as I'd been in the bike shop to get a 12-27 cassette, but they didn't have a 9-speed, and I'd thought I had a 11-25, but it's a 11-23, and I've got a road double in the front. My lowest is 39-23, where most others seemed to have 36-27. The race organizers had taken out the run-up by the tennis courts, and replaced it with a sandpit followed by a log, which was the first dismount of the course (the other two being a set of stairs, and the barriers). The only place I would have liked a lower gear is the ramp up at the beginning of the BMX track, but I made it up each time.
I noticed at the start that my rear tire was very squishy - but it was too late to fix. I felt the rim hit the ground on every bump on the entire course. I've no idea how I didn't actually pinch flat. My back wheel was stepping out on the tight corners (were there any corners that weren't tight?), and it felt like the tire was rolling off on the off-camber bit before the bleachers.
And if there was an award for the slowest barriers, I'd be the champion.
My time was 59:11 according to the time sheet emailed out, but it didn't feel like an hour.
I spent the rest of the taking photos and videos of the other races. I'm really getting the hang of the video thing - and cyclocross races are great practise, because you can set up a shot and film one ride flying through the frame, play it back, and make changes, then film the next rider. I got some really good clips: I set the camera up on the ground on the outside of the corner where the gravel turns to grass on the intermediate first lap, where all the riders were bunched up, and got a clip of them all taking the corner, including Louis taking out half the cones and nearly the camera. I wrapped my GorillaPod around the railing on the bleachers and filmed the off-camber swoopy bit. I set the camera up in the flower bed by the little bridge, and got riders riding through the frame over the humped-back bridge, including reflection in the pond. I got the big banked corner on the BMX track. I got riders re-mounting after the barriers one after the other. I got the stairs. I got lots of good wheel shots. And loads of good photos too.
By the middle of the whirly-whirl time trial my first memory card was full, so I stuck the second one in.
Got home. Nothing's coming off the first card.
I'm a little miffed.
It wasn't even one of them cheap no name cards.

Last Saturday

... I went to visit Hilary at the market and then rode to Mill Bay to take some pictures.

That's not your bike!Hilary insisted I take a photo of a lady's giant cabbage:This first video is a time lapse I made at the market on Ingram Street:

This is a "tour" of part of the market. I attached the camera to the top tube of my bike with a GorillaPod.

At Mill Bay I tried some long exposures. I can't find a ten stop ND filter (77 mm) that can be had for under $150 (!), so these were improvised with ND8 and 720 nm IR filters stacked, but best I could get (and this is on a cloudy day) was one minute. I really want at least four to get the clouds blurry, probably more.
This was the first setup:
It was inevitable:
A steel frame full of salt water. It had needed a good clean for months. I guess that was the final nudge.

More pics coming...

Tzouhalem on Saturday

Long weekend! Yay!
I'm just really dreading work on Tuesday.
Ted was over from Vancouver for the weekend, and wanted to go riding.
I went up the Tzou at about 3 pm, and he came up at about 6.
After admiring each other's new bikes (he bought a Hustler frame to replace the Stiffee), we rode up some singletrack, came down Little Dipper, Luc's Skywalker, Fluid, and Resurrection.
We rode a bit of woodwork. I fell off the same bridge three times, once onto Ted. It's just the up ramps that I can't do. I'm fine once on the ladders. I rode along the top and down, I just couldn't get up.
Here's Ted demonstrating the difficulty of the up ramp:
We ran into Crazy Doug at the top of Showtime/bottom of Cakewalk. I'd met him previously shuttling friends on Prevost. He gave us advise on routes down Prevost - cheers Doug.

I made Ted miss his mum's steak dinner. I don't think he was happy about that.

I took my GPS receiver, but I don't know what's wrong with it - it seems to only work when I turn it on!

Do you think I'm over doing it with the monochrome?
I'm kind of of the opinion that if colour isn't adding anything, then it's detracting.
I find contrast much more interesting. (click to enlarge)

. . . catching up with the blogging . . .

Looks like I haven't posted since late April. Wow.
I've been busy, and have had better things to do.
(Like unpaid overtime. sigh.)

It officially became summer in May. By "officially" I mean that the hairs on my arms went from being darker than my skin, to being lighter.

It was the Cobble Hill XC Race that was organized by the club on May 10th. I was marshalling, and thought I might as well take along my camera and some strobes, and set them up on the trail. The picture taking went well generally. Lots of riders were out of focus - maybe next time I'll have to manually focus, and hope I hit the shutter when the rider's in the right place.
All pics are here.

I went to a Killers concert in Victoria with Lauren and Ilene from work. I'd never been to a concert before, so that was fun.

Hilary, Erica and I went on an "outing" to Vancouver. Erica drove us to the ferry that took us to Horseshoe Bay. We took the bus into the city and walked around for a bit, then went to the Art Gallery. We spent the rest of the day at Granville Island, and got the last ferry home.


I joined the camera club. The first meeting was Thursday before last, and was the second-to-last meeting off the year. There was a field trip the following Saturday to Ganges (on Saltspring Island). I rode to Crofton, and then we took the ferry to Versuvius Bay, and the bus to Ganges. I spent the first couple of hours walking around with Diane (apparently a friend of Patricia's and Brad's), taking pictures at the dock. We met up with the others and walked around the market a bit. We went on the 8:30 ferry (leaving Crofton), and the others came back on the 1 pm ferry, but Vanessa, Teresa and I came on the 3 pm ferry. I would have liked to stay longer, so went back again yesterday and took my bike. It was a bit cooler, as it was cloudy until about 2 pm, but warm enough so I didn't get uncomfortably cold on the ferry.
I'm not sure if I'll bother with camera club next year though - it seems to be mainly old people that take pictures of birds. At the meeting they were showing the photos from the previous competition - and the pictures were all very "traditional". They seemed to be lacking creativity and originality. I'll go to the next meeting, anyway, and see.

I've been taking loads of pictures, but can't seem to find the time to process them. It took me three weeks to get all the XC race pics done. I get some up on my photostream.
...including taking some of Hilary's stuff:

This is the setup shot:


I'm doing the Twelve Hours of Cumberland the weekend after next. Roland was trying to get together a team, and asked me to come. I'm excited, and a little nervous at the same time.

I've been riding a lot. I've only been able to sleep for about 4 hours a night lately for some reason, so I've been riding before work. Mill Bay, Lake Cowichan, Ladysmith, Shawnigan, etc.
I'm going to go and find Meschatchie (spelling?) Mountain tomorrow.

These were from a ride on Tzouhalem with Jackie, who was (is) brand new to mountain biking. I'm not sure what's going on with Hilary's shorts in this one:

Hilary and I rode "Hell Mountain" (Hilary named it): before work on Wednesdays with her friends Colleen and Rachel, except they haven't come at all, so we rode Prevost this week. The heat is a little more manageable at that time of day. We left her house at 7 (well... that was the plan) and took Daisy and Ben. It was a steady ride up, but the trail down was excellent (once we found it - "oh wait, we've gone past it", "oh yeah". After several minutes of looking we realized we hadn't got to it yet!). It's so dry up there, so the trails are very dusty, but very fast. My wheel started making a clangging noise after an unintended shortcut through a bush. After investigations today, I found that I have onve again broken the little spring thingy that holds the pads back. It's the third time I've broken it, but the last two times I was left without a front brake halfway down a mountain - at least this time the pads held on.
I was late for work.
Again.

I really want to join the rowing club in Maple Bay, too.

Project 365

It's not long after one starts browsing Flickr that "Project 365" pops up.
Let me explain - take (and post) a picture everyday, for 365 days.
From there, everything is flexible, and everyone creates their own rules. Lots of people do 365 days of self portraits. Others will give themselves other restrictions, such as using only their fisheye lens, or taking their photo for the day before they do anything else in the morning.

I thought this was an excellent idea, but didn't think I could follow through - but I've changed my mind. If I have said (online) that I will do this, I can't say to myself that I won't bother today.

This project serves several purposes. Hopefully, having to take at lease one good, postable picture a day will help to make me better at taking pictures. You get better from doing, and this forces me to do. It will also act as a semi-blog in pictures. Each day's picture will give a clue as to what went on on that day. This will also push me to take photos when it seems like there is nothing to take photos of.

My rules:
The pictures don't all have to be different. I'm a bit of a perfectionist about my photos, and have never taken one I'm happy with. I intend to re-visit photos I'm not happy with to see if I can do a better job the second (or third, or fourth) time around.
Each day's picture will be posted the morning after, before I go to work.
They don't all have to be good, because let's face it - they aren't all going to be.
I will post at least one picture of me every month.
If I do miss a day for some reason - it doesn't matter. I'll carry on.
It will actually be Project 334, as I'm starting on February 1st and it seems to make sense I should end (and start again) at the new year, as a journal book would.
The rules must change - as I think all rules should.
The pictures will not all be posted here - they will be on my Flickr photostream:
HERE - and all viewable in the PROJECT 365 set.

So here we go...
February 1st
1/334 - Knitting in Starbucks (because nowhere else is open late on a Sunday, except Timmy's - but their seats are too hard) with Hilary.


That's Hilary in the picture, knitting her "traffic cone" skirt.
I hate the (lack of) low light performance of this camera - grainy starting at ISO 400, and very mushy at wide apertures.

Mr. Blue Sky

Sun is shining in the sky, there ain't a cloud in sight
It's stopped raining, everybody's in a play
And don't you know, it's a beautiful new day.

Running down the avenue, see how the sun shines brightly
In the city on the streets, where once was pity,
Mr. Blue Sky is living here today.
(it's an ELO song)


It has been foggy and rainy all week, but yesterday it was sunny, with a bright blue sky. There was frost everywhere, and it was a bit cold, but since there wasa no wind and plenty of sun it didn't really feel cold.
I went out for a ride. I went the long way to Cow Bay and through to the Cobble Hill road. I rode along the highway to Wippletree and stopped in at "The Loom" to get some wool to make some fingerless mittens for taking photos. I then rode along the highway and turned off at the bottom of the hill along the road that goes to the tennis club, went back the way I came, and then rode around the lake to Maple Bay and back along Herd Road. I was going to ride along Richard's Trail and back along Bell McKinnon, but accidentally turned off along Osbourne, and by the time I came back and got to Richards it was starting to get dark (well... that was an excuse. I was actually getting tired - not riding for two months really takes it's toll!), so I headed home.
Although this was quite a short ride, it took me all afternoon, not because my legs are slow or I was on a mountain bike with knobby tires and no big ring, but because I had to stop every few minutes to take pictures.
I have been finding that I can take tens of pictures of the same scene, and not be happy with one of them. As in most things (arty things, anyway) there are two sides: the arty side, and the technical side. For example: pottery. When Hilary makes mugs, she has to know more than what shapes and colours are aesthetically pleasing and what shaped handles are ergonomic, she also has to understand the chemistry behind the glaze composition and how the clay and glaze will react during firing (I could be getting this horribly wrong - I don't know much about pottery). I understand the technical side of photography. I know how to use my camera, I understand the science behind photography (thanks to Mr. Stone!), and (probably most importantly) I can apply my knowledge. But I have trouble with the arty stuff - composition and the like.
I have come across the photostreams of several photographers on Flickr recently that are the opposite - the content, composition and design of there photos is very good, they clearly leave the camera on auto all the time, and I read in the photo descriptions and on there blogs that the auto settings on the camera take work away from the photographer to leave him to concentrate on the subject matter. I disagree with this - although leaving the camera on auto exposure, auto ISO, auto focus, auto etc, will give you a "correct" picture - it's boring. The camera will probably do a very good job of choosing the "best" exposure, focus point, but wouldn't it be cool to have the motion blurry, the tree silhouetted, the lights out of focus? The camera just does what's "best", and best is never cool.
I know the basics of composition: the rule of thirds, leading lines, direction of motion, focal points, framing, et.c (sort of literary devices of the photography world). I thought I would try and find some information on this sort of stuff. All the tutorials and information on "how to be a better photographer" was about learning about f-stops and ISO. I know all that, and couldn't find anything that went beyond the technical stuff. So I started browsing Amazon.com to see if I could find an old-fashioned book (not an e-book - one actually printed on paper). All the recommended books covered less than I already knew. I checked Listmania, and found nothing but more of the same. I didn't see any point in buying a book with one chapter at the back called "Composition", which would, no doubt, be very basic. And then I came across The Photographer's Eye - Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos (Michael Freeman) - there were only two customer reviews, and it wasn't a big seller, but the reviews and blurb sounded promising, so I bought it.
It arrived a few days ago, and I leafed through it yesterday. The chapter headings look interesting: The Image Frame (Dynamics, Shape, Stitching, Placement, etc), Design Basics (Contract, Balance, Pattern, Perspective, Weight, etc), Graphic and Photographic Elements (Points, Vectors, Triangles, etc), Composing with Light and Colour (Chiaroscuro (what?), Colour in Composition, Colour Relationships, Back and White, etc), Intent (Conventional or Challenging, Reactive or Planned, Documentary or Expressive, Simple or Complex, Clear or Ambiguous, etc), Process (The Search for Order, Reaction, Anticipation, Exploration, Construction, Photographs Together, etc). Reading the Table of Contents, I wanted to jump to the chapter on "Intent", which seems very interesting, but I didn't.
Before I'd even finished the first paragraph I found myself rummaging through my desk draw in search of a highlighter. I can't read without one. I think it was Mrs Fletcher (Year 6 teacher) that pushed the highlighter thing. Mrs Fletcher pushed a lot of things though, such as putting the date on the top line in the left margin, and the title in the middle of the second line, but everything else she encouraged was dropped as soon as it was someone else marking my work that didn't care which line the date went on. I think the Level 2 SAT was the first "proper" test I took, and that was in Mrs Fletcher's class. We spent quite some time preparing for the tests, and our little village school always got very good marks. I think I got all 5's with a 4 in English (let down by my story writing). Highlighting key words might not have been a huge importance when the questions were one sentence, and I'd highlight 80% of the words, but in university physics it would often take several minutes just to read the question, and three reads before you start to understand what you're being asked, only to realize that you don't know how to do this one and will come back to it later. When you're doing research for a paper, you might only need a couple of sentences to quote out of the whole book, so good luck finding them again if you didn't highlight.
I always need a highlighter with me whenever I'm reading - bike magazines, mail, books, instructions, work orders at work - I find it saves me a lot of time if I can read one or two words instead of the whole think. When reading books and magazines I often come across a sentence or phrase that summarizes what would take me a long, drawn-out blog post (such as this one) to get across.
The first thing I highlighted in this book was "Facility at using this frame depends on two things: knowing the principles of design, and the experience that comes from taking photos regularly." (Freeman, p9). I'd actually been thinking about that recently. Nothing can substitute for experience, including education - in everything. Watching "Bike Skills" videos doesn't make you a good rider - riding your bike makes you a good rider. Passing the A+ with good grades doesn't make you a good tech, working as a tech makes you a good tech. Reading about using your camera doesn't make you a god photographer - taking pictures makes you a good photographer - which reminds me of something I said higher up as well about applying knowledge. A lot of people in my photography class at school got good marks on the tests - they had studied and learned what depth of field and chromatic aberration were, but when it came to the assignments they didn't know where to start. What's the point of having knowledge if you don't know how to use it? This was even more evident in computer science class. Some people thought that if the studied the syntax and structures they would pass the test - but computer science exams were always biased heavily towards application - usually 75% programming and 25% theory. A lot of people dropped out of computer science - the remainders got good marks and never bothered to study. If you can do the labs without the TA having to hold your hand you can pass the exam no problem.

And once again I have gone way off track. Wasn't this supposed to be about my ride yesterday?
I was going to go riding again today, but felt knackered - I need to start going to bed earlier.

Distance: 47.9 km
Time (total): 4:09
Time (moving): 2:33

my bedroom curtain

I woke up this morning with my head dangling off the top of the bed. It's a good job my hair isn't a couple of inches longer - if it were it would be touching the heater.
I looked up and noticed that the curtain above the head of my bed made a nice curly pattern, a bit like lasagna. I took a photo of it while my packet noodles were cooking.
I'm definitely finding the limitations of this camera, and have been since I bought it.
The photo would have been much better and easier to take with a wide angle lens, and with a camera with decent high ISO performance, but more on that in a post to come.

Starbucks

I've been spending a lot of time browsing Flickr's Explore page recently, and dreaming that one day I will be able to take good pictures. The Explore page is a random sample of a collection of the 500 most interesting photos on Flickr each day. The photos are widely varied and cover every style and subject, but I've noticed one particular subject popping up in Explore over and over, and the composition and style is always the same. It's a macro shot, with a "bokeh" background, (which, yes, is very fashionable anyway).
A cardboard Starbucks coffee cup.
Sometime in the summer, after the Cobble Hill cross country race, Amy Luck (one of Hilary's pottery students) invited some of us over to her house for a "girls night". Erica (another student of Hilary's) used to work at Starbucks, and we ended talking about the "coffee culture" in North America. This proves (well, strongly supports) Amy's theory.
Interestingness is calculated based on a secret formula, but basically, the more people view a photo, comment on it, and mark it as one of their favourites, the more "interesting" it is. Now, Flickr's a big place. As I write this at 12:30 am (of course, I'm going to bed at 11 today to catch up on some sleep) Flickr says that 7084 photos were uploaded in the last minute, and it's the middle of the night. To be one of the 500 most interesting is quite an achievement. Americans must like their coffee.
I say "their" as I am obviously not one of them. The smell of coffee makes me nauseous. I don't go to Starbucks unless with someone else (ie. not very often), because of this (and that I'm a cheapskate). But if I did want a cup of tea and didn't want to go home for one (ie. never, unless I'm with someone else), then I'd go to Tim Horton's (but their tea is horrible, so I'd have hot chocolate instead). I find Starbucks intimidating. The few times I have been, I've just gone with "chai tea late", because it's all I know. You can't even just have a hot chocolate - dark, milk, white? Cream, milk or water? Flavouring? (What flavours have you got?) Gingerbread, mint, caramel, ...? I'm culinarily ignorant, so you might as well just give me a Sushi menu. I know fish and chips, toad in the hole, cheese and beetroot sandwiches, roast beef, trifle, and Custard Creams. You could be talking Latin to me when you start ordering Hollondais sauce, mussake, foccaccia, chop suey, temaki, profiterole, tortillas, ... (but I know what Prairie Oysters are, thankyouverymuch). I don't know if I want a shinny or grande. I don't care what country the nutmeg came from. I thought "mocha" was a colour. Macchiato sounds like a martial art. I'm not even sure what makes the tea "chai".
Why is it this way? It's snobbery, surely. It's wanting to sound clever, be fashionable, cool (though I think I'm showing my age here - didn't people stop saying cool in the 90's?). It's like wine tasting - red with fish, white with red meat, "this fruity full bodied blend would compliment the aroma of the orange and mint blossom duck pate beautifully!".
But then what about shampoo? (shampoo?) My shampoo isn't "lemon" scented, it's "kiwi lime squeeze with lemon grass extract" (damn - I'm sure I'd gotten one with Ulang Ulang!). Who says "Oh, I'll get this one, because the kiwis and limes have been squeezed, and it's not got whole lemon grass, just extracts." My laundry detergent is Orange Mango Tango. My tooth paste is cool mint, as opposed to fresh mint, spearmint or cool ice (whoever heard of warm ice?). When I bought deodorant I had the choice of baby powder, spring fresh, shower fresh or summer breeze (but I wanted fresh breeze!). My dish soap is crisp cucumber melon spring sensations.
Why?
Soup is going the same way. I challenge you to find a can of soup that says "chicken soup" on the label!
So what's this all about? Marketing of course. (Isn't that what everything's about?) I suppose we (the consumers) are supposed to think that the more healthy/fresh/organic/clever adjectives they use, the more engineered we will think the product is - obviously, more research, product testing, and engineering has gone into "Bumbleberry and South African lentil, with crushed wheat grass and acai berry seed essence" scented dish soap, than "fruit". Then there's the "comfort and enjoyment" factor. The C&E factor was taught to me in a business course taught by Mr. Potter in high school. For an assignment in the advertising unit we had to watch a load of advertisements on TV and write down which of a list of advertising techniques were used. Comfort and Enjoyment is the only one I remember, probably because one of the boys shouted it out when the Preparation H commercial came on. C&E was when irrelevant things are used to summon thoughts and memories of comfort and enjoyment. Like the box for the tea I'm drinking. It's called "sleepy time", and has a picture on the box of a teddy bear in a night gown, slippers and stocking hat (with a pompom), sitting in a rocking chair in front of a fire. For some reason, I only usually drink this kind before I go to bed.
"Fruit" isn't a good blurb for dish soap. I wasn't at all surprised to read that there are people that write book blurbs for a living. Naming paint colours continues to hold the "dream job" title for me. I think I'd be good at it. I think my bedroom is "Glowing Pompleberry Espresso White" (what colour is my bedroom, anyway? I can't tell - I still haven't changed the light bulb, and won't likely do so, as it is a good excuse for not wearing matching colours). Am I getting off topic yet?

I didn't take the photos on this page. They're in the Starbucks group on Flickr. Yes, a group of photos just of Starbucks cups and chairs and stuff. My next sentence was going to be that there's no group for Tim Horton's, but there is. But it's crap.
So I'm going to have to either steal a Tim Horton's cup, or buy a cup of Hot Chocolate after work tomorrow and take some photos. Anyone coming with me? On me. Two word maximum.